And Satan brought forth cable TV with remote control so Man would not have to toil to change channels between ESPN and ESPN2.

And Man gained pounds.

And God said, “You’re running up the score, Devil.”

And God brought forth the potato, a vegetable naturally low in fat and brimming with nutrition.

And Satan peeled off the healthful skin and sliced the starchy centre into chips and deep fat-fried them. And he created sour cream dip also. And Man clutched his remote control and ate the potato chips swaddled in cholesterol.

And Satan saw and said, “It is good.”

And Man went into cardiac arrest.

— Excerpt from an unsolicited e-mail from my former scuba-diving instructor Rosy Low. Rosy, a middle-aging German woman living in Singapore, can be found during most weekends about 100 metres below the South China Sea. She calls it “technical diving”. October 1, 2002